Lies taste good!!!

“Lies taste good” is a comment I heard on a video presentation, which was addressing a new heretical Bible ‘translation’ called the ‘Mirror Bible’. In a nutshell, the Mirror Bible does what it say on the tin, so to speak… it makes the Bible all about YOU instead of the One we are truly meant to reflect – Christ Jesus the Lord of lords and King of kings.

But this blog post will not be examining that heretical writing, which I had never heard of until now. Instead, I am taking hold of the concept of “lies taste good” to examine why this is something followers of the resurrected Christ should really understand.

It started in a beautiful garden…

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 3:1-2, The Bible

Adam’s God-given companion, his wife, listened to the voice of an evil being embodied in a creature.

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3:4-5, The Bible

… and here we have it. Lies taste good. The serpent twisted God’s instructions around and made a forbidding order sound like something that would supposedly be very beneficial. The result… well, as Adam & Eve were the first representatives of the human race, we see both from the subsequent Bible passages, and our own human experience, the consequences of accepting lies instead of Truth.

What if the serpent had simply said “just eat what you want, after all you’ve been given free will by God. Yes there will be serious consequences, but just go with the moment!” These would have been true statements – free will, consequences… but perhaps Eve would have thought twice about listening to satan because of consequences being highlighted.. The lie was more enticing… lies taste good. Notice that the serpent enticed her with the possibility that she could be like God. Do you recognise ways that people today are trying to be God-like, yet denying the God who is actually revealed to us?

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons

1 Timothy 4:1, The Bible

The same works of the serpent are continuing, with different faces but the same old schemes.

One of the ways that the serpent’s lies are at work today is regarding the pursuit of more spiritual revelation. I touched on this in my last post ‘Spiritual Knowledge’. But here I am looking specifically at what satan uses to entice believers in the Lord Jesus away from Truth.

For those of us from the pentecostal-type church background, and the emphasis often put on either speaking in other tongues or extended prayer times to seek God’s presence, I have seen that it can be easy to slip into thinking that unless we have certain ‘experiences’, we are not quite spiritual enough. I remember standing before the altar, having someone’s hand pressed on my forehead, praying earnestly for me to get a particular experience…. as if we can somehow make it happen by the sheer force of our own will. The person had good intentions, but I was left feeling discouraged when certain experiences didn’t happen. Thankfully, someone else noticed my demeanour and encouraged me. I very much believe in the spiritual gifts, and there are times when God does overwhelm me with His presence, but if I decide to focus on getting an ‘experience’ and start chasing after special words of revelation, I can fall into the trap of feeling dissatisfied if I don’t experience something in particular, and I fail to just trust that God is with me. I then can leave myself open to a lie coming my way from satan, to fill that feeling of ‘lack’ and distract me from true worship by faith in God’s promises. If satan can get us to feel dissatisfied with our relationship with God, and get us to be more focused on the pursuit of ‘feeling more spiritual’, or some other ways to get us to take our eyes off our Lord and Saviour, then his job to weaken God’s church is made easier.

I will illustrate this in relation to yoga. This is an eastern religious practice (yes religious, for those who thought it was just some stretches) that has not only increased in popularity over the years, but has also infiltrated churches considerably. Why would believers in Jesus, who have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us, feel the need to practice yoga? Well, because lies taste good. I will now illustrate the lie.

There is a ‘Christian’ yoga movement called Yogadevotion in Minnesota, USA. The founder, Cindy Senarighi, says the following on her ‘About us’ page:-

“Yogadevotion LLC began in 1999 as an organic response to a deeply profound experience of God’s Presence following a vinyasa yoga class. The experience of God’s Presence through the practice of yoga was shared in the faith community and has been a mutual blessing for our students, instructors and the communities we are invited into. “

Let’s look a bit closer at this initial statement. Ms Senarighi was practising vinyasa yoga, which is a type of flowing movement yoga, and equated her spiritual experience with ‘God’s Presence’. First, the assumption that God endorses yoga as a means to develop a relationship with him. Ms Senarighi spoke of being warned by her church not to do yoga, but she went ahead anyway. An unfortunate thing in Ms Senarighi’s journey into yoga, as stated on the documentary DVD ‘Yoga Uncoiled’, is that when she walked into a yoga class, the teacher said she was a Christian, thus causing her to think that yoga must be ok for a Christian to practice. The spirit of yoga influenced her in such a way as to think she was having a deeper experience of God. Instead, what was really happening is that she had exposed herself to a spirit which was certainly not the Holy Spirit of God. She had given her body to another spirit. See here for the nature of that spirit. Notice the serpent wrapped around the figure… Ms Senarighi went onto actually developing her yoga involvement into classes for church groups. She eventually stopped working in the church.

¹⁶ What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2 Corinthians 6:16, The Bible.

What agreement has the temple of God – those redeemed in Christ, with idols? None actually. Some Christians would say that Ms Senarighi was probably not a Christian in the first place. Maybe… or maybe she truly believes in Jesus but was influenced by a more liberal flavour of Christianity, which doesn’t help believers to grow in Bible knowledge and discernment. Interestingly, she had become an ordained ‘Pastor’ in the Lutheran Church, and was leading yoga classes at the same time.

So, what lies have any of us perhaps taken on board to draw us away from true worship? What temptations have any of us slipped into, because it felt good at the time, even though our God-given conscience nudged us? God can deliver us, restore us, and bring a wonderful testimony of His amazing grace in our lives. But let’s not learn the hard way. Lies taste good, but Truth honours the One who is worthy of all praise. Truth is Jesus – the Light of the world. Truth is that we – created beings – need our Creator. That we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, but are made righteous by faith in the Lord Jesus, who became the holy Sacrificial Lamb to reconcile sinners to a holy God. Let’s keep our minds stayed on Him, through His word the Bible, being filled with the true Spirit of God, ready for His second coming… and don’t forget to tell others to believe in Him too!

⁸ Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Psalm 34:8, The Bible

Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.